Deviation Games, the studio formed by Call of Duty’s Zombies mode creator Jason Blundell and Treyarch veteran Dave Anthony, has shut down before it could ship out the game it was developing in partnership with PlayStation.
The sad news was shared on LinkedIn by Deviation Games’ Chief HR & Operations Officer Kriste Stull, who also said the team would be holding a networking event to help those impacted by the studio’s closure.
“It is with a heavy heart that we announce the closure of Deviation Games,” Stull wrote. “I want to express my deepest gratitude to our entire team. Thank you for all your hard work, dedication, and contributions to Deviation; I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunity to have worked with each and every one of you.
“To the entire video game industry, we will be hosting a networking event, and we would love for any/all companies/studios hiring to participate. Please reach out to me directly if you are interested in attending.
“To all the Deviators out there, we will always cherish the memories we made together. Thank you for being a part of our journey. Go get ’em!”
Deviation Games was revealed in June 2021 and Blundell and Anthony stated they were working on a new IP that was very early in development. We still have yet to learn what that IP was, but Blundell did share a few words about their dreams of the project back in 2021.
“We’re drawing on what we’ve learned over our collective decades making games, but we’re also out to make something fresh and brimming with innovation like you’ve never experienced before,” Blundell wrote. “We’re not afraid to say that our ambitions are super high: we’re setting out to make a huge, content-rich game with a focus on a lot of action and a lot of energy, but let’s leave it at that for now and hopefully it won’t be long before we can share more.”
In 2023, several of Deviation’s devs took to LinkedIn to share they had been let go after the studio was hit by layoffs.
This is yet another example of layoffs and studio closures in 2023 and 2024 and follows EA’s decision to shut down Marcus Lehto’s Ridgeline Games and the closure of Rooster Teeth.
For more, you can check out our chat back in 2021 with Blundell and Anthony about the special experience of forming their studio.
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Adam Bankhurst is a writer for IGN. You can follow him on X/Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on TikTok.
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